Google Apologizes For Translating 'Gay' Into Homophobic Slurs
(CBS SF) -- Google apologized after facing fierce criticism for a software glitch that was translating "gay" into homophobic slurs for several different languages.
LGBT advocacy group All Out took up a fight with the search engine after discovering its translation service was suggesting the word "faggot," "poof" "fairy" and "pansy boy" for the word "gay."
Andrew Banks, All Out's executive director, first noticed the flaw on Jan. 24.
Within two days, Google heeded their complaint by launching a new version of their translation app and releasing this statement to All Out:
As soon as we were informed that some of our translations for certain terms were serving inappropriate results, we immediately began working to fix the issue. We apologize for any offense this has caused people. Our systems produce translations automatically based on existing translation on the web, so we appreciate when users point out issues such as this.
All Out celebrated the victory on Twitter.
Google already filters out hateful and sexist language when typing "female."
